Genetic and environmental contributions to the acquisition of a motor skill
Fox, P. W., Hershberger, S. L., & Bouchard, T. J. · 1996
grade Btwin-adoptionindependentreplicatednumbers spot-checked
Sample
Twins reared apart (rotary pursuit task)
Population
Adult monozygotic and dizygotic twins reared apart.
Design
Twins-reared-apart design tracking a motor skill across repeated practice trials — the cleanest test of whether practice compresses or amplifies genetic differences.
Key findings
Practice AMPLIFIES individual differences rather than compressing them. Heritability of rotary-pursuit performance was already high at trial 1 and INCREASED with practice, and the RATE OF LEARNING was itself significantly heritable. The same signature found in reading (better instruction raises heritability): removing the environmental bottleneck lets genetic differences express. Directly answers 'is motor trainability heritable' with a twin design rather than a family design.
Genetic confound
This is the genetically-sensitive design; reared-apart twins remove shared environment.
Replication notes
Converges with Missitzi 2013 (motor-learning h2 ~0.70, small n) and with the reading GxE literature (Byrne 2009; Taylor 2010).
DOI / URL
Nature 384:356-357 (1996)
Effects
| Outcome | Metric | Value | Measure | Timing | Vs | Horizon | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heritability of motor performance across practice | h2 trend | high at trial 1, INCREASES with practice | researcher-designed | acquisition across trials; lab | none | not-applicable | domain-skill |
| Rate of motor learning | h2 | significantly heritable | researcher-designed | acquisition; lab | none | not-applicable | domain-skill |
Cited by
- Talent and trainability — what is heritable, and what that does not licensestrong supportconf: highgc: low